Fall of Justice

Mad World

Gotham was quiet. This was not the city Bruce knew and loved. Where were the crowds, the couples, the people he had given everything to protect? Batman watched from the highest cathedral, the night was calm, the lights shimmering, a sinister picture of peace.

Just below, tanks lined the streets, Blackhawks skated across black clouds in the distance. Fear ruled the city.

Amanda Waller's apartment had been cleaned out, no fingerprints, not even strands of hair had been left behind, nothing to give him any indication of where to look next. He found that hacking the CIA was much more difficult when they didn't want to let him in.

He did the only other thing he could think to do. He listened to Gotham. The nine-one-one calls, the hospital lines, anything to give him a clue as to Kara's whereabouts. He had scoured the city with the batwing, he had beaten Joker's old associates and still there had been nothing. But he refused to stop. Kara had meant everything to Clark, he wouldn't let her waste away in secret. He would find her if it was the last thing he did.

"Joker's what?" he heard a woman's voice say as he was scanning cell phone calls from the hospital.

"Property," a man answered. "...carved into her back."

"Who was she?"

"Jane Doe. But she's got blond hair, it was up in pigtails when we found--"

"Oh my God! Harley Quinn! You worked on Harley Quinn! You've touched fame! I knew dating a doctor would pay off one day. What's she like?"

"Right now? Quiet. I know she's crazy but it's kind of sad... she's in a lot of pain. He really messed her up."

"How bad?"

"Cracked ribs, broken clavicle, cut cheek, bruises everywhere."

"Are the police gonna arrest her?"

"They've already got the room under guard, she's cuffed and everything, it's crazy."

Batman clicked off the call and looked East, to Gotham General.

Moments later he was in the room. Harley slept. He had never seen her so still. White bandages covered her abdomen, hints of red just below the surface. Her face was half swollen, her lip cut open. It would have been easy to hate her for what she did to Nightwing, for framing Kara... but as she lay there, her breathing labored, her body broken, he knew he couldn't bring himself to feel anything but pity for the once genius young doctor, now nothing more than another one of Joker's victims.

"Give a girl some privacy," she said as she quietly woke. Her voice was low and hoarse. She covered her midriff with her hands.

"Where is he?" Batman asked.

"I ain't gonna help you," she told him, looking away and crossing her arms.

"Why are you protecting him? Look at what he's done to you."

"What do you care?" she said, "...At least Mistah J's honest with me. Hurtful and mean, sure, but honest! You're just pretending to care so I'll take you to him. I'm not doing it. And yes it is out of spite. If you're wondering," she huffed.

"I do see you as a means to get to him," he said. Her brow furrowed, she wasn't expecting that. She kept her eyes away from him, waiting for more. "But that's not all I see when I look at you. I remember you from the night I brought him in. Before you were Harley Quinn. I remember you as--"

"So what if you do? So do I, big whoop!"

"So I know there's more to you than petty crime and being someone's punching bag. You worked hard to work at Arkham. You sought it out. Most young doctors avoid it like the plague. You volunteered."